Chapter 3 #2
The fucker wasn’t done either. “I want you to listen to me, Max. Someone who lives and breathes high-protocol is more likely to connect with someone similar. It’s obviously not foolproof, but we’re talking the likeliest scenarios.
A Master is drawn to slaves, yeah? Just like I’m drawn to masos and primal players.
It’s in my damn DNA. It’s what attracts me.
And you… Let’s say you’re a fetishist. You love BDSM, you love primal play, you’re a great Top, you’re both sadistic and nurturing.
Do you fuckin’ need another box? Or can you stop and smell the roses for one goddamn moment and let that be enough? You already have an identity in kink.”
If that was true, how come I’d struggled to maintain a relationship?
Hell, my longest had lasted about a year.
I’d like to think I was good-looking. I wasn’t unpleasant to be around. I had hobbies and a solid career. I paid attention.
I’d never been cheated on, to my knowledge. No dramatic heartbreaks or relationships shattering to pieces. They’d simply…fizzled out. After weeks or months, I’d stand there with a partner, both realizing something was missing. And we’d part ways.
“Maybe I don’t wanna find a fellow fetishist,” I grumbled.
Reid snorted under his breath. “Because you want everythin’ black-and-white? Don’t answer that. You’re missing the point again. Fuck kinks, Max—connect with a person, not a fucking kink. With the right chemistry, you don’t know what the kinks are gonna look like beforehand anyway.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I mean that we change with the person we’re with,” he answered. “To a degree, at least. Take Corey, for instance. Y’all were good together, but you were basically friends. Your kinks lined up, and still, nothing. You lasted, what, two months?”
If that.
“If you’re trying to recruit me to vanilla dating, don’t bother,” I said. “I want BDSM in my life.”
He groaned through a chuckle, clearly frustrated with me.
“All I’m sayin’, you stubborn motherfucker, is that once you click with someone, your chemistry is going to make shit real simple.
That’s why I never bothered lookin’ for someone within a specific kink box.
It doesn’t fuckin’ matter—and I trust myself to be drawn to men who want pain in some capacity.
But even if I didn’t…? Hell. I don’t know. ” He sighed. “I don’t know.”
He didn’t know.
“I just think…” He cleared his throat. “Once you meet someone you want more of, you won’t care if it’s a sub, a regressing masochist, an every-now-and-then bottom, or a switchy primal player.”
I wasn’t gonna give him shit. I did understand what he was getting at.
“When you mix two components, you don’t know what the chemical reaction’s gonna be,” he finished.
I stared down into my glass, watching the ice melt into rounded cubes.
Water mixing with vodka.
When you mix two components…
I’d had some explosive chemical reactions, and of-fucking-course, most of them involved Reid. Mostly group play. When we found each other playing close together, and we sort of gravitated toward each other…
One memory stood out. Maybe three years ago, when we’d all rented a big house in the Keys. We’d essentially had a three-day-long fuckfest.
“Do you remember when we had Joey between us in the hot tub?” I asked.
I finished my drink, and a slow dizzy spell rolled through me.
“You mean before he went monogamous with LC? Yeah, I remember.”
I furrowed my brow. “I’m monogamous too.”
“So am I, but it doesn’t make shit easy for group play.”
True enough.
“What about that night?” he asked.
I shrugged to myself and left the glass on the table. I was officially drunk, and I was done drinking. Otherwise, I’d never get up tomorrow.
“It was hot,” I said.
LC had filmed us in the water. It was back when they were just play partners. Sam had spotted us. We’d been so rough on Joey, one of the most hardcore masos I’d ever played with. Well—Reid had been rough. I’d ended up on the receiving end, despite having Joey between us.
With Joey on my lap, and him fucking himself on my cock, facing me, I’d been too close to Reid’s target.
He’d used a rubber flogger on the boy’s back, and the lashes had struck my arms and neck.
Then later, when Joey had taken both of us at the same time, Reid had gotten so swept away by the moment that he’d become grabbier with me than the boy.
Because I remembered so vividly how he’d picked up the pace, looking down at where his cock was disappearing into Joey’s tight ass alongside my own, while his hand had slipped up my throat—
“My go-to memory is the jungle takedown.” Reid’s low voice shook me out of my own reminiscing, only to shove me into a new memory. And this one—fuck, I’d almost forgotten. Wait, this was his go-to? But he’d… “The look on your face when you got caught in the crossfire.”
I clenched my jaw, instantly annoyed, even as a thick rush of desire slithered through me.
Got caught in the crossfire—vague way of reminding me of how he’d shoved me up against a tree in order to get me away from the prey I’d thrown down on the ground. Reid had scratched up my entire back with that move.
He’d also let the prey escape, however briefly.
I swallowed hard as the memories came rushing back.
The anger, the shock, the fight. Oh fuck, the fight. How had I suppressed this memory?
He’d grabbed me in a chokehold, taking advantage of my frozen state, and grazed his nose up my jaw.
“Having fun?”
I shivered and gave my cock a squeeze.
The rising anger had eventually broken through the shock, and I’d shoved him away from me. We’d become animals that night. I’d wrestled him to the ground, but he’d one-upped me and ended up on top. Goddamn bastard. But rather than claiming the prey as his, he’d told me we could share him.
Maybe that was his favorite part. Maybe that was what he thought back on in the shower or wherever, when we’d hunted down the boy again and turned him into a spit roast.
“The part where you interrupted me with Jason, or when we shut him up together?” I asked.
He chuckled darkly. “Definitely the former. You’re fun to piss off. And you—fuck.” He exhaled, and the way he did it killed my irritation at the former comment. “The way you fight back, Max…”
The fucker actually groaned, and I sucked in a breath and felt all the blood leave my brain.
The fight in question hadn’t lasted long, maybe a minute or two, but yeah, it’d been wild.
It’d just been the two of us in the darkness, no safety guards, no artificial playground to protect us from what actually existed and lived in a rain forest. Snapped twigs and broken branches fucking hurt when you were lying on top of them.
The underbrush had been damp and rustling with life.
And then there’d been the otherworldly look in Reid’s eyes.
I slipped a hand down my boxer briefs and gave myself a few strokes, and then I just didn’t stop.
I’d been fueled by the screams of defeated prey nearby—and the lit torches flickering here and there, providing the right amount of light, a faint glow, to reveal what hid in the shadows.
“You didn’t go easy on me,” Reid murmured huskily.
A breath gusted out of me, and I stroked myself harder. “Never would.”
We weren’t evenly matched, but I could hold my own for a while.
He only had a couple inches on me—and maybe ten pounds—but he lifted weights and had a more physical job than I did.
His hobbies also put him on the move. He built things and loved manual labor.
I…was really good at solving sudokus on my phone.
Whenever we met up to go on a hike or take our bikes out in the Shenandoah, I had to push myself to the extreme to keep up with him.
At the same time, I loved his strength. I loved how it increased the intimidation factor about him.
He was the silent killer who could be pushed for quite some time before he snapped.
I drew a deep breath and closed my eyes, and I wondered how it would feel to really see that side of him. When it was aimed at me, not a nearby sub.
God.
How had I not connected the dots before? This was where that curiosity stemmed from. That fucking jungle takedown. Our wrestle. He was the goddamn reason I’d foolishly checked primal/rough on that kink list we’d handed out. Because he’d ignited something in me, and I wanted more of it.
“Is, uh…” I cleared my throat and pushed down my boxer briefs altogether. “Is there a forested area at the new place?”
I’d only seen pictures of the house we were renting this time.
“I’d say so,” he answered. And I knew that voice. Low and doused in desire. I’d heard it way too many times directed at masochists—which…fuck. I couldn’t help it, but it suddenly sparked jealousy within me. “It’s on the outskirts of Homestead, so we literally have the Everglades in the backyard.”
That’ll do.
I brushed the pad of my thumb over the slit of my cock and smeared out the pre-come.
“You want a second go?” he murmured.
“I think I might.” I raked my teeth over my bottom lip and stroked myself faster. Fuck, that’s it. “You know, to even the score.”
He rumbled a sexy laugh. “Dream on, boy. I’ll have you flat on your back in five minutes.”
I couldn’t force back the groan that wanted to escape, but I was too far gone to give a fuck. The pressure built up rapidly, and I started seeing us running through the Everglades, knocking each other over, throwing punches, never holding back, biting and grabbing—
“The question is what I can do with you when I defeat you,” he said, out of breath.
Christ, he was getting off too, wasn’t he?
I shuddered violently and swallowed against the dryness in my throat.
“Then again, nobody knows you like I do,” he added. “I won’t ask.”
For what, my limits? He better not. As he’d already said—he knew me. He knew.
I didn’t wanna talk about it, because the risk of him actually doing anything was slim to none. He talked the talk to get a rise out of me, but I’d known him long enough never to take the bait.
No, this was better. I’d face him in the dirt once more. I’d get a new fantasy, one I was never going to suppress, and before we got there, I could live on the minuscule what-if. What if he actually threw me down and rapefucked my ass.
Shit.
Pleasure welled up inside and erupted before I could react, and I was thrown into my orgasm.
“Fuck,” I heard him grit out.
I moaned as ropes of come hit my stomach, and I heard him too. His grunts and his growl-like groan; he was coming, and I wanted to fucking see it. Feel it. Taste it…
Goddamn.
My body gave up. Every muscle unclenched, and I melted into the cushions.
“Jesus Christ,” I panted.
He blew out a heavy breath. “Yeah.”
I blinked drowsily, looking for the nearest—fuck it. I picked up my underwear and wiped my stomach.
Had this just happened?
My fucking God.
“I’ll buy you breakfast after security tomorrow if you don’t make shit awkward,” he said.
I let out a tired chuckle. At the moment, I was too blissed out and sufficiently intoxicated. Awkwardness didn’t exist, and I was ready to continue drinking to keep it that way.
How I’d feel when I got up in a few hours—we’d see.
“I think only Five Guys is open when we get there,” I drawled.
“Works for me,” he replied through a yawn. “Goodnight, Max.”
I swallowed. “Night, Reid.”